ABSTRACT
AS MENTIONED IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, SINGAPORE'S NEW CULTURE Movement was situated between nationalism and enlightenment. Advocates for change were often motivated by a sense of nationalism, believing that enlightened individuals would help save the nation from the divisiveness of warlordism and the threat of foreign aggression. Before this movement could gather momentum in Singapore, it was first necessary for there to be an educated and literate segment of the populace. Moreover, the overseas Chinese needed to possess a degree of Chinese consciousness, or nationalism. Throughout the nineteenth century, dialect differences, clan loyalties, and economic disparities often impeded the growth of nationalism among the overseas immigrants. By 1919, however, various community-wide institutions had weakened these and other competing loyalties, allowing for the huaqiao to imagine themselves as members of the same community. In this chapter I first look at those factors that divided the huaqiao population and that could have impeded the growth of a national consciousness. Next, I investigate those institutions that transcended these divisions, helping to form a unified Chinese community overseas. I then conclude by looking at the emergence of Singapore's literati in 1919.
